Mohanlal - The Phenomenal Actor.

"Mohanlal - The Phenomenal actor I know."

I always saw his versatility in five different ways. Let me list some performances.

1. T.P Balagopalan MA, Naadodikaattu, Kireedom - Considered as Mohanlal's strength, The Common Man. Today many young actors find it extremely difficult to portray such roles.

2. Sadayam, Vaanaprastham, Iruvar - Mohanlal has been criticized slightly for carrying his charisma (known as Lalism among his fans) in most of his characters. So we tend to see more of Mohanlal than the character. But I believe they forgot to analyze characters in Sadayam, Vaanaprastham, Iruvar etc etc where Mohanlal suspended the so called "Lalism (word for his onscreen charisma)" and gave a different style of performance and yet able to justify the character in the best way possible by any actor.

3. Priyadarshan's romantic comedies/slapstick comedies - The ultimate dream for any commercial actor who follows Mohanlal's path. Priyadarshan used both Mohanlal the actor as well as the star quite well for his movies. Taking full advantage of Mohanlal's amazing comic timing and mixing it well with his ability to perform in romantic scenes gave a pleasant feeling to the audience while watching Priyadarshan films. Regarding slapstick comedies, I have already mentioned Mazha Peyyunnu Maddhalam Kottunnu.

4. Raajavinte Makan, Naaduvaazhikal - This isn't exactly challenge for an actor like Mohanlal. But here the directors preferred to give him roles which could ensure box office success more than critical acclaim. But yet the directors ensured the fact that they didn't go beyond a limit with his stardom and always provided space for Mohanlal the actor to do something. I still wondered.. whats so special about the "Rajumon ennodu choodichu... My NO is 2255... Sagar Alias Jacky"... Maybe his acting skills along with his sound modulation made those lines special along with the scenes/build up. But be it Jacky or Vincent, again he successfully portrayed and made the audience make believe once again.

5. Devasuram, Spadikam - I didn't add along with the list of action commercial films because they weren't exactly such films. Neelakantan of Devasuram introduced a new face of Masculinity to the Malayalam Film Industry. Many got inspired by that character and this inspiration is mainly due to the portrayal of that character by Mohanlal. Checkout the scene where he threatens the police. We have seen such scenes in movies many times but this time it was kinda different. It looked more believable than previous ones. This ensured the fact Mohanlal succeeded in portraying that role that too in midst of an era when he did romantic comedies and characters which are totally positive.

In my opinion, If an actor can brilliantly carry off these five kind of roles along with some roles like Kamaladalam, Yodha, Raajashilpi which demanded physical flexibility, he should be one helluva versatile actor. This is where Mohanlal simply outshone his contemporaries and got a special place in people's mind. He became a raging success and created fans among film viewers as well as in his colleagues both from his industry as well as outside Malayalam Film Industry who don't watch Malayalam Movies regularly.